Summer Meeting Schedule, Updates, and Requests

Our Executive Committee meetings were traditionally held in Warwick (central to the state). However, some members indicated that they would like the meeting locations to vary across the state to decrease travel time for certain meetings. To accommodate we devised a plan to rotate meetings from North (Cumberland) to Central (Warwick) to South (Peace Dale). We are happy to add locations as need is identified. To increase attendance we also now post meeting schedules 3 months in advance and hold them at regular intervals (last Thursday of the month from (6:30pm- 7:30pm).

We welcome anyone interested in supporting the needs of gifted children in Rhode Island to join us at any of our upcoming meetings.

We are also trying to form sub-committees. The intent is for small groups of around 4 people to meet in between our monthly executive meetings to pursue the applicable endeavor. The meetings can be held at anytime, anywhere, and how ever often that group feels necessary. It is possible that you won’t need actual meetings and can just work together via e-mail or phone to put your plans into action. These groups are where the real work of RIAGE will happen. We need MANY more people to participate in order to be successful. It doesn’t matter how much time you can give, anything is helpful. The following sub-committees have been suggested:

Please complete your RIAGE Registration forms. This is the only way we have to keep track of members and ensure communication is effective throughout the organization.

We have 97 members on our Facebook Group “Gifted Support Network of MA and RI”, we have 50 people on our Facebook Group, and 24 members on our e-mail distribution list. However, we have 9 completed registration forms and typically 5-6 people attending monthly meetings with no sub-committee meetings happening in between. There is obviously a need for this organization and plenty of affected and interested people. We all want easy answers and solutions but unfortunately, they currently don’t exist. We need to work together to make things happen. We can’t complain about “how things are” and ask for help and solutions without contributing to change. Everyone is busy and has a lot going on in their lives. We all want/need to focus and help our individual children and have little left over time to help a new and struggling organization that is trying to make BIG changes. However, we all know that many hands make easy work. A few of us can’t do this alone. We need lots of experience and expertise that can only come from a greater portion of the population becoming actively involved. Everyone has something to offer, no amount of time or effort is too small. People with legal, educational, legislative, corporate support, marketing, and more are needed. We need teachers, school committee members, lawyers, parents, principals, superintendents, and most importantly support from the state of RI (mayors, state representatives, commissioners, governors, etc.) Please help spread the word and consider donating your time to help the state of RI become more “gifted friendly” for all.